So just to give this a small bump…
I’ve decided to do a project covering the entirety of Rebels in 4K HDR similar to my Clone Wars edits. It will be composed of 13 “feature cuts” using about 55 episodes (and the season 1 shorts) while 20 episodes will remain as unedited solo affairs (more than in the TCW project), but still get the same upscale treatment.
The same 4K HDR upscaling process will be applied, but it will be improved upon what I did for the earlier “Liberation of Lothal” finale cut (which will get a v2 using a newer and notably higher bitrate source and a newer coloring process that aligns more closely with the final TCW HDR transfer).
You can already see a revamped version of the Liberation of Lothal Prologue here, using the updated footage/HDR coloring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSr-RDQkLjk&feature=youtu.be
A very small handful of episodes will also be re-ordered to make some cuts more themed, but any alterations to order I do will take the script and continuity into close account so as not to break the story in any truly notable way. Many of the self contained Rebels episodes can occur in slightly different order with no real consequences to the larger canon. I’ve already scrutinized the scripts pretty closely to avoid any blatant errors that a first time viewer might notice and be confused by.
As an example, Maul’s story will be compressed into a film cut that mostly occurs over the early events of season 3, rather than throughout the season. This, however, allows fans to watch his entire season 3 arc in a single “film” that both wraps up his story and simultaneously serves as an introduction to Thrawn.
And here is a 4K HDR sample clip of Ahsoka fighting the Inquisitors from Season 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ASx65unozA&feature=youtu.be
The completion of this project will help bring the entirety of the Lucas era (32BBY-4ABY) into one completed 4K HDR package. While I wouldn’t be surprised if a 4K DPI of Rebels technically exists, it seems unlikely that a 4K Blu Ray release of either this or TCW will ever occur due to the already existing D+ releases, so this will fill in that gap. Sadly, I don’t know if I can ever justify doing the same for Resistance (it just… isn’t a show in the same league as the first 2), while 4K “movie” edits of Mando s1 and 2 are already out there and really don’t require my touch at this time.
For the time being, I’ve removed the download links for the v1 “Liberation of Lothal” edit. It will be replaced with a nearly identical (but visually improved) v2 cut eventually when the project is completed.
After this show is completed, I’m honestly not sure how much remaining Star Wars content there will be for me to continue working on. I may do small updates to the Episode I-IV transfers at some point based upon what I’ve learned since last April (Episode III already is on a v3 and should be pretty close to final now), but most refinements will be small technical changes to the transfers/encodes themselves at best. IV is the most likely project to get a v2 release when all is said and done. Edits for V and VI would be fun, but their content is in rough enough shape that I’d need much more extensive FX work to truly give some of their deleted content justice, and that may well go beyond the realm of this one man job I’ve been doing all year. We’ll see. Future cuts based on new content could happen, but I want to be delicate about how quickly I create them, so as not to necessarily step on the Mouse’s toes too blatantly.